Walk the Plank
Walk the Plank is the sixth episode of Endurance: High Sierras. Overview The teams compete in the first Temple Mission of the season, and the first team is sent home from the High Sierras. Summary This episode of Endurance: High Sierras begins with a bang, as the teams arrive at the lake for their first Temple mission! The new Gray team (the result of the partner switch that had occurred the day before) was given the Samadhi by the Blue team the previous evening, so they nervously lead the pack to meet JD at the game site. JD informs Darci and Ike that their handicap in this first Temple mission will be to start 20 seconds before everyone else. Gray is well aware that they are the early targets in this game: if they don’t win the mission, they’ll surely be gracing the Temple with their presence that night! JD explains the challenge: “Walk the Plank.” Each team will send one member to stand on a plank over the water. The other player will hold a rope that keeps the plank parallel to the water, thus keeping their partner from falling in. If the player holding onto the rope lets go and their teammate falls into the water, they are out of the game. The team that manages to stay dry wins the mission, guaranteeing them at least a few more nights in the High Sierras. More importantly, the winners will have the right to send two teams to the Temple of Fate that night, where the first team will be eliminated. The game begins and Darci walks out onto her plank 20 seconds before the others, as Ike holds onto their rope with all his might. Soon, the other teams join Gray in this serious test of endurance. One by one, the teams begin to drop. First Aric, from the Yellow team, succumbs and his partner, Lilly, plunges into the water. Then Orange player Max lets go, and Kristine takes a spill into the lake. Next, the rope slips from Alex’s hand, and Cealey falls in, eliminating the Green team. Forty-five minutes into the game, Blue, Red, Purple and Gray are all still clinging on for dear life! JD decides these teams are too good and makes the game even tougher by telling the contestants they can only hold on to their team’s rope with one hand! Connor can no longer endure the pain of hanging on with one arm and is the first person to drop, thus eliminating the Blue team. Next, after giving it everything he has, Ike gives in to the weight of his partner, dropping Darci and ensuring the Gray team’s fate. In the final showdown between Red and Purple, Cameron holds up his partner, Aeriel, and outasts Dakota and Kelsey of the Purple team. Red has won the mission, giving them the power to pick both teams to go to Temple! Back at the treehouses, Gray talks to Aeriel, who admits that Red will probably send the Gray team to Temple. Later, Aeriel and Cameron discuss who the second team should be. They want to send Yellow, but they both feel bad about it. Then they come up with the perfect plan! They convince Darci’s former teammate, Connor, to tell Yellow about the secret strategy Darci came up with, back when they were teammates, in case they were sent to Temple. Connor obliges and tells the Yellow team that Darci’s strategy is to always pick the same element at the temple. Armed with this information, Red is confident that Yellow will beat Gray and be the team to survive the Temple of Fate. But despite this good-faith effort on Red’s part, Aric is still upset that his friends are going to pick him. He storms off, prompting Aeriel to feel bad and rethink her decision. Once everyone is up at the ridge, JD asks for the Red team’s final decision. They ultimately break down and send Yellow and Gray to the Temple of Fate. At Temple, the Yellow team picks wood in the first round while Gray picks water, giving Yellow the lead. Yellow then puts the information they received from Connor into action. Predicting that Darci will pick the same element twice in a row, they pick wood again. Sure enough, Darci and Ike pick water. Thus Gray, for the fourth time in five seasons of Endurance, is the first team to exit the game. Meanwhile, the Yellow team is the first team to survive the Temple. They return to a joyful group that got the outcome they all wanted. Standings Notes: The Friendship piece holds the Triangle of Immunity. :To be given away: Luck Mission In Walk The Plank, each team will send one member to stand on a plank over the water. The other player will hold a rope that keeps the plank parallel to the water, thus keeping their partner from falling in. If the player holding onto the rope lets go and their teammate falls into the water, they are out of the game. The team that manages to stay dry wins the mission. Production Notes Quotes: *'Taylor': "Connor, how bad you want to be here?" **'Connor': "I want to be here super bad!" **'Taylor': "How bad you want to go to Hawaii?" **'Connor': "Really bad!" **'Taylor': "Be Monroe!" **'Connor:' (impersonating Monroe): "STOP IT!" *'Cealey:' "Think about your family, your animals, your siblings..." **'Alex:' "I don't even have a pet!" **'Cealey: '"Hold it, babe; I don't care!" *'Darci: '"Listen to him, Ike— you know what happens if we lose; just hold on..." *'Kristine: '"You've got this— it's all mind over matter; it's all good, you got this!" **'Max: '"There's water on my grip— it automatically slips!" **'Kristine: '"Come on, Max— we're not going to Temple, just make your muscles bigger." *'Darci: '"Ike, you're a rock!" *'Dakota: '"I'm so hungry." **'Connor:' "I'm hungry for victory!" *'Dakota: '"You weigh like 20 pounds!" **'Kelsey:' "I am 20 pounds!" **'Alex:' "Why can't you weigh 20 pounds?!" **'Cealey:' "Be quiet! Let go isn't in your vocabulary!" *'Lilly: '"Man, he's tough." *'J.D.: '"45 minutes; you guys clearly have alot of endurance. We're about to make this challenge alot tougher." **'Aeriel:' "No!" **'Kelsey:' "No!" *'Kelsey: '"No hard feelings, but you need to at least make it past Gray!" *'Taylor: '"Woo! Connor, come on and don't let me fall!" **'Connor: '"I'm trying... it just hurts so much!" *'J.D.: '"Ike holding on with everything he's got!" (Ike lets go, dropping Darci) *'Ike: '"Darci, I could've held you up so much longer..." *'Ike: '"I should've did it with my right." **'Darci: '"Why didn't you?" **'Ike: '"I dunno; my left felt better, and then it started slipping after two seconds." *'Ike: '"Cameron's friends with Orange, Purple, Blue and Green; they want us to go to Temple..." **'Aeriel: '"They do; they really do." *'Aeriel: '"I think that if we send Yellow to Temple, that they'll make it back." **'Cameron: '"That's what I said to him, but then he was saying that Darci's got the whole thing, like, planned out already." **'Aeriel: '"We could ask Connor what the plan was!" *'Connor: '"So here's the deal: when me and Darci were partners, and we talked about our strategy at the Temple of Fate, she told me that 'if you lose the first round, you pick the same thing again'." *'Lilly: '"I was surprised that Aeriel broke her promise to Yellow, because she promised Aric that she wouldn't send him, but I think Cameron definitely changed her mind." *'Aeriel: '"Okay, you know what? I don't wanna send y'all, forget it— look at them, man; I can't sit here and do that! I promised Aric the other night that I wouldn't send him to Temple, and I'm not about to break that promise!" *'Aeriel: '"After I saw Lilly cry, that was the first time that I was really mad at myself then and there, because breaking my promise would be very bad; choosing Orange to go to Temple would get everyone to turn against me, and I just can't have that." *'Cameron: '"I just wish all the other teams would go in a room by themselves and decide who'd go, because I don't wanna have to decide." *'Aric: '"Connor told me Darci's strategy." (Cealey's mouth drops in shock) **'Max: '"Darci was on Connor's team." **'Cealey: '"I know, but what was her strategy?" **'Aric: '"She just goes with the same element, but I don't know if she might change it..." *'Dakota: '"Say goodbye for now!" *'Aric: '"I hope that I do have good karma tonight— I'm not gonna be cocky and say that I'm gonna win Temple and a bunch of missions, but... I really hope so because I don't wanna leave here." *'Ike: '"I've learned that you probably won't go anywhere in life being mean or negative, because if you don't have friendships with anybody, you won't go anywhere." *'Darci: '"I do have a strategy at Temple— most teams, after they lose the first round, they don't pick that element out of fear of losing with it again, so if you pick the same element, you're at least guaranteed a tie, but it's not foolproof." *'J.D.: '"Gray team, a lot of history: three times the Gray team left as the first team, and then one time out of four, they actually became Endurance champs; so let's see what fate has for the fifth time." Trivia *The mission played is similar to Monroe's "beast" challenge on Endurance: Hawaii. **Taylor mentioned Monroe in this episode when she motivated Connor. *This marks the 4th time in five seasons where the Gray Team is the first team eliminated. **This episode also marks the last appearance of the Gray Team on the show, as they didn't appear in Endurance: Fiji . *Most of the quotes from this episode are among the most famous lines from Endurance. *This may be the longest challenge shown on Endurance, lasting over 45 minutes. *First episode that premiered in 2007. *This marks the only Temple Mission in E5 where the Blue Team doesn't get sent up to the Temple of Fate. *Last Time a Yellow team wins at the Temple of Fate Category:Episodes Category:Temple Missions Category:Endurance Challenges Category:Season 5 episodes